I’m sure everyone that is old to enough to ride a bicycle has been subjected to the overused cliche that patience is a virtue dozens, if not hundreds of times. During the last 3 months of 2011 I got a chance to test this time honored theory out. My hiatus from this blog during the holiday season was indeed intentional, as I did not want to burden you with the tedious details about the roadblocks we were dealing with trying to get this brewery going. Now that we have entered the new year, allow me to make amends and give you the scoop.

I know I mentioned our search for a new location the last time around and the ironic part is that we decided to give it one more try at the original spot. Our two major issues were the existing septic system shared by the business complex and the inability to sell pints out of that building due to zoning restrictions. Thanks to the wonderful people at the county office, our wastewater consultant and a coffee shop in downtown Mariposa going out of business, those problems have been solved! We now have an approved permit for our own leach field and a perfect space to convert into taproom.

The other major hurdle we had was really a result of how much steam this craft brewing industry has gotten. Due to the high demand for the construction of professional brewing equipment, our manufacturer of choice had not only gotten a ton of orders from that last time we spoke, but their prices also went up! After about a month of going back and forth on delivery date and pricing, the time finally came for THE decision. Everyone knew that once the system was ordered and a deposit was put down, there was no turning back. Two days before Christmas, I received the call that the sales agreement was signed and that this thing was really going to happen. Merry Xmas to me!

So what does this all mean? Since I began chronicling this journey nearly 2 years ago, I made it clear that my ultimate end game was to open a small brewery. Thanks to my education (Thank you UC Davis), my public display of creative expression (Thank you BYO Magazine), an email from one of my soon to be partners (Thank you Terry), my drive and last but certainly not least, patience.... it is now finally a reality. In a months time I’ll be packing my bags and heading into unfamiliar territory both literally and figuratively. It’s scary, it’s exciting and I couldn’t be happier that I’m going to doing what I hope is truly my labor of love for many years to come.

For those of you that have followed this blog, I would like to say to that it has been a pleasure sharing this time in my life with you. Since there is already a very good blog being written about the trials and tribulations of a budding new brewery for BYO, I shall close the curtain on this one. That being said, you can bet you haven’t heard the last of me!

If you happen to take a trip out to Yosemite National Park later this year, feel free to stop by Prospectors Brewing Co. in Mariposa and have a beer or two. You can say you know the Brewmaster. We're hoping to be open by mid/late summer.

Cheers!

Questions or Comments? Feel free to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I know I can’t speak for everyone that brews their own beer as to why they do it. Having said that, I’m willing to bet more than half of us do it for the creative “let’s see what happens when I do this” aspect. There are so many variables that have an affect on the final outcome of a beer, it’s almost mind boggling. But that’s what makes it so cool right?

Before brewing anything for my new employer, one of the variables that I wanted to get right was the selection of the yeast strains. After doing a lot of research and with the help of the gentlemen at the Brewing Science Institute in Colorado, I was able to get samples sent to me that had the characteristics I was looking for.

Once those arrived, I was able to brew 3 pilot batches in recent weeks for Prospectors Brewing Co. on my homebrew setup. I can’t tell you how many times I have revised and looked at my own recipes, compared them to others, tweaked them again, brewed the beer, tasted it, tweaked it again, etc. I even made the ultimate bone-head move and walked away during the transfer from the kettle to the fermenter.... with the sample port valve open. Yeah, that was a good one. Lost about 70% of that batch and had to brew it again the next day. Talk about a buzz kill!

All in all, I was very pleased with how the Blonde Ale came out. The Wit turned out to have a fairly low O.G. and then it foamed like mad out of the keg, so that was a bit of a disappointment. I’m convinced my homebrew supplier changed their mill setting on me, but that doesn’t explain the foaming. I’ve got the all important IPA in secondary right now, so the jury is still out on that. Being on the west coast, you know that has to be a legit offering.

Not only have I been able to brew at home, but I was able to get some more hands on experience, thanks to my friend Dave Meadows at the El Cajon Brewing Company. I met Dave at my time with the Firehouse and since it’s closure he has been working on getting his own brewpub going with his brother Steve. I’ve gotten to help him with 2 batches so far and I’m hoping to continue do so even after they open in the next couple weeks. Free labor + experience = Free beer and food for Justin! Hard to turn that down.

I also made a 3 day trip up north to try and make some headway on prepping the soon to be old location for an eventual move to a new location. Speaking of that, I think we are getting close to knowing if this is really going to pan out or not. We’ve got a potential location for production and one for a taproom that are about 50 yards from each other on the highway leading into Yosemite National Park and Bass Lake. Now we are going through the process of getting our plan for the locations approved by the county and estimating the costs for getting them ready for business. A meeting with the county officials is being scheduled as I write this to determine what needs to be done to meet their requirements. It will likely determine whether we can get this project off the ground or if the partners involved decide to just sell the assets. By this time next month, I should know if there truly is a light at the end of this tunnel, or if it’s time to change trains.

As many of us have read in Jamil’s blog, starting a brewery from scratch isn’t for the faint of heart. In the past 2 months I have begun to understand this fact more and more. I have become quite entrenched in the process of ordering a brewing system, estimating costs, developing CIP processes, determining volumes of waste water etc. All of which are intertwined in one way or another.

Last month we were very close to ordering the brewing system from a well respected manufacturer here in California. That is, until we found out that there was a “zoning issue” and that selling pints out of the current location was out of the question. The previous owner of the brewery had indeed been selling pints out of the tap room without the permission of the county and was going to be shut down. He ended up going out of business prior to any enforcement. We had no idea about this restriction and direct to consumer sales were assumed in the initial business model which now had to be reevaluated. Considerations were then taken to focus on keg distribution and/or look for a separate location for a taproom with the proper zoning in a more traffic heavy location in town.

After much discussion, the partners decided to move forward with the purchase of the brewing system..... until some information on the limitations of the septic system that the property was on came to light just a few days before pulling the trigger. After meeting with a consultant familiar with the septic system and a few county officials, it was determined that the amount of water used during the various cleaning processes and brewing of 5 bbl batches would likely exceed what the system was designed for and could result in failure. I cringed at the thought of what a septic failure entails, but we were told it would shut the brewery down for a long time if that ever occurred. That’s wasn’t an option. After looking at a couple alternative solutions it was determined that we would likely have to look for another location and that means more start up costs. But hey, if it was easy then everyone would be doing it right?

Despite these hurdles and delays all is certainly not lost. We have already started looking at other potential locations in the Sierra Foothills. I have also been able to ink an agreement with the partners and I am now officially the Brewmaster at the newly named Prospectors Brewing Company (Location to be determined of course!). I have already found a house in the area owned by a family friend that I plan on moving into if this all works out. So things are moving along and I have learned A LOT already during this process that I would not have known otherwise this early in the game.

My hope is that we find a great location that is within the company’s financial means and we can finally move on to the next phase. While that’s going on, I plan on making some pilot batches at home of the four core beers we plan to start out with, which should be fun.

I’m not sure how many of you have been to Las Vegas or any other city that has a casino with a craps table. I personally try to stay away from table games these days. But in my younger years I’ve put some money down on the pass line a time or two. When someone is rolling the dice and has gotten hot, there’s nothing quite like the roar of the people standing around as everyone is winning and high fiving each other. Then people start doubling their bets and letting it ride. More risk equals more reward right? But at some point, there will be a 7 or 11 rolled... and that is when it gets quiet.

Well my friends, I experienced a moment similar to “crapping out” a few weeks ago. I checked my email one morning prior to going to work at the Firehouse brewery and saw that I had something from the President of the company. Much to my dismay he stated that due to the insurmountable level of debt that the new management team had discovered over the past couple months, along with multiple financial lawsuits, that they had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. All employees were terminated. Effective immediately.

I’m sure I paraphrased a bit of that, but you get the idea. Going into this I knew that I was walking into a rebuilding phase. I didn’t know they were in THAT bad of shape though. To their credit, I think the guys that hired me tried very hard to undo the damage that was done by the people that were previously running the place. I also believe they didn’t truly know the extent of what they were getting into bed with until they pulled back the covers so to speak. I don’t hold any ill will towards them, but regardless I still feel like the wool got pulled over my eyes just a little bit.

There is still a chance that a group of investors may come along and try to revive the Firehouse Brewing Company once the dust settles. These things can take a long time and I am certainly taking the skeptical approach on this one. I truly, will only believe it when I see it.

Upon arriving back to San Diego from my trip to Dogfish Head, the waiting game had begun. My head was racing with all sorts of scenarios that included what life on the east coast would be like, how I’d fit in as the token So Cal guy in a small Delaware town, and wondering if being a brewer at DFH was the ideal working situation for me at this point in my life. As the first week passed by, I followed up with the head brewer at the Mission Brewery here in town, to see if their new facility was operational yet and if they needed to add to their brewing crew. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t leaving any local opportunities on the table before making any decisions on relocation. I was told that they couldn’t hire anybody just yet, but that maybe down the road in a month or two they’d have the money to hire someone full time. It’s basically the same story I had heard before, so I was beginning to accept that I might be moving soon. I’ll be the first to admit at that point in time, I was getting a bit weary of job searching.

After about 10 days of waiting, I finally received the call from DFH that they wanted to officially offer me a brewing position. The woman I was speaking to immediately went into all of the benefits they provided, pay, the stock program, bonuses, etc. After about 10 minutes of me listening to all of the great things they offer (and believe me it is the best I have ever heard from a craft brewery), she paused and asked “Well, what do you think?” I was a bit overwhelmed at that very moment, so I told her that it all sounded very good and politely asked if I could take some time to let it all soak in before giving a definitive answer. She completely understood and said I could take some time to get back to her.

The next day I called my family and a few friends to share the good news. As expected, there were mixed opinions as to whether I should make the move or not. Then something unexpected happened. That evening I received a voicemail from a gentleman representing the Firehouse Brewing Co. in San Diego. He saw my resume and wanted to speak with me regarding a potential opening. I called him back shortly after and had an interesting conversation with him about their current situation. He himself was relatively new to the company and they were in the midst of a change in management due to some missteps from the people previously running both the brewing and business side of things. Despite the growth they had achieved over most of the last 10 years, recently production had slowly fallen off and in turn sales were slumping.

What it all boils down to is that they were basically starting over again and wanted to inject some new blood into the place. There was one remaining brewer that survived the old guard and a prospective Brewmaster that would be working as a consultant to help right the ship. That was it for the production staff. They wanted to know if I was interested in rounding out this trio. I told him I was very interested, but that I needed to know how serious they were rather quickly since I had a pending job offer from you know who.

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